ARSENE WENGER last night hailed the injury jinxed striker whose brave comeback has probably spared Arsenal having to splash out a fortune this month.

He said Danny Welbeck, sidelined for nearly nine months with knee damage, is now so ready, willing, and able to help the Gunners title charge that he has to hold him back in training to try to ensure he doesn't get injured again.

The Arsenal striker has managed only 37 starts and eight goals since moving from Manchester United for £16million in 2014.

But Arsene Wenger believes he is now the 'new' man who could help fire up the Gunners Premier League campaign.

The Frenchman said: "Danny has pace, technique, is good in the air and wants to help the team. You could see that coming out before his injury. He has everything.

GETTY

Arsene Wenger is holding back Welbeck in training to reduce the risk of him getting injured again

“He was England's centre forward, let’s not forget that, and then with England’s failure at the European Championship you cannot stop people from thinking 'If Welbeck was there he would have helped us to win against Iceland'”, for example.

“He is genuine, committed and humble. You do not find that many times. Maybe also people felt sorry for a guy who couldn’t play for two years

“Some players come back and look like they have not been injured. He is one of them, so we have to hold him back sometimes in training.

“I think we will see more from him, but he is not completely out of it," Wenger warned. "We rest him, one day, two days. He had bone inflammation and that takes huge time to recovery and you have to be careful not to have a set-back."

GETTY

Welbeck looks set to return to Arsenal's bench against Burnley

Welbeck will probably start on the bench this afternoon for a game against 10th placed Burnley that the manager considers crucial after what has happened in the past.

Last year Arsenal dropped vital points against teams who finished between fifth and 12th. And the boss is stressing that mustn't happen again.

"We cannot afford to," he said. "That's why the challenge is to turn up with the right focus against Burnley because that’s a typical team where last year we would drop some points.

"You analyse what happened last year and we are conscious that is one of the challenges this year.

Five most valuable Arsenal players revealed

Tue, January 17, 2017

Click through the gallery to reveal the five most valuable Arsenal players according to CIES Football Observatory

Click through the gallery to reveal the five most valuable Arsenal players according to CIES Football Observatory

"But I have more weapons now. At this point last season we had scored 37 goals, today we have scored 48. That’s a huge difference.

"We are certainly more relentless. We have scored more goals than anyone else in the last five minutes and the team who has scored 14 goals with people coming off the bench. So we have more offensive weapons."

"When I look around me on the bench I think: 'If he comes on, he can give you something,'

"Now we have Welbeck back, and Perez, but before I had Giroud on the bench,

Walcott was playing. It can give you something (extra) having players like them to come on," he added.